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Luton Airport ordered to pay £273,000 over woman's death

Luton Airport has been fined for health and safety breaches that resulted in the death of a woman Photo: Fiona Hanson/PA Archive

Luton Airport has been ordered to pay £273,000 in fines and costs after a 78-year-old woman died on a crossing outside the terminal in 2009.

C T Aviations Solutions, the civil engineering company which designed the crossing, was fined £70,000 plus costs of £30,000.

Both were found guilty of breaching health and safety laws at a 6-week jury trial earlier this year.

It follows the death of 78-year-old Mary Whiting from Norwich on a crossing outside the airport terminal in May 2009.

During the trial the court had heard how Mary Whiting had just returned from a family holiday. As she stepped onto the crossing she was hit by a lorry driven by Rossano Casagrande from Peterborough. He was cleared of death by dangerous driving in 2010.

In June 2013 a jury decided that Luton Airport had failed to protect visitors against risks to their safety. They found both defendants guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 2009.

London Luton Airport Holdings Ltd was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £198,000.